Banana helps police catch wild monkey

Chaos reigns as primate roams condos

April 5, 2008|By WALTER PACHECO ORLANDO SENTINEL

ORLANDO — A diaper-wearing monkey named Prada chased after residents at a southwest Orlando condo complex Friday before animal control workers tricked him into a cage with their secret weapon - a banana.

Police said the pandemonium started about 9:20 a.m., when a woman flagged down an officer to report an escaped monkey that was terrorizing residents at the Studio Parc Condominiums.

Officer Safwat Shaheed entered the complex and spotted the 4-year-old brown and gray capuchin monkey, similar to the lovable primate in the television series Friends, perched on a wall, wearing a diaper.

Prada was "charging citizens as they were attempting to capture it," Shaheed wrote in his report. Residents fleeing from the hostile primate were running into the street and into oncoming traffic.

"The owner of the monkey had a caregiver taking care of the pet, but somehow he got out of his cage and out through an open window and into the complex," said Vanessa Bouffard-Fehl of Orange County Animal Services.

Sgt. Barbara Jones of the Orlando Police Department said animal services managed to trap the wily monkey by luring him into a cage with a banana and some apples. No one was injured.

Prada's future, however, is up in the air because his owner did not have the permit required by Florida law to maintain a primate as a pet, authorities said.

The monkey was sent temporarily to the Back to Nature Wildlife Refuge in Bithlo. But Bouffard-Fehl said Prada will be turned over to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

The commission requires that owners of capuchin monkeys carry a permit to keep the primates as pets. The permit is free, but requires owners to submit proof of at least 1,000 hours of experience in the care, feeding and handling of primates or to complete a written exam on the care of these types of monkeys.

According to the commission, capuchin monkeys must be kept in a cage measuring 6 feet by 6 feet and including a perching area, shelter and climbing equipment.